Rising prices in deflationary times

Rising prices in deflationary times

January and February are the months in which we go to the Toy Trade Fairs, sourcing new toys and games for our autumn catalogue.  Always a bit depressing to be thinking about next Christmas when we’ve hardly recovered from the last one.  This year we knew there would be added uncertainty because of the likelihood of significantly increased prices, resulting from the weakness of Sterling.

In fact we were not as unsettled as we had feared.  Some of our suppliers have been unable to avoid quite hefty price rises – up to 25% in some cases – but others have managed to curb their increases to a more acceptable level.  As a result we have managed to absorb a number of price rises for our Spring & Summer Catalogue, but sadly not all. If we had not increased the price of some toys and games we would have had to have dropped them from our range.  So regrettably you will see a few products that have had to go up by a £ or two.

We were relieved then to see on the BBC website that this increase in the cost of toys, games and hobbies is one of the factors in today’s rise in the Consumer Prices Index.  We don’t feel good about it, but at least we know we’re not alone in being forced in an upward direction.  Rest assured when the Pound strengthens against the Dollar and our costs start to fall we will do all we can to send them back down.

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